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Water crisis took toll on Flint adults’ physical, mental health
Since state austerity policies initiated a potable water crisis seven years ago in Flint, Michigan, public health monitoring has focused on potential developmental deficits associated with lead exposure in adolescents or fetuses exposed in utero.
New research from Cornell and the University of Michigan offers the first comprehensive evidence that the city’s adult residents suffered a range of adverse physical and mental health symptoms potentially linked to the crisis in the years during and following it, with Black residents affected disproportionately.
In a survey of more than 300 residents, 10% reported having been diagnosed by a clinician with elevated blood lead levels – well above national averages – after a state-appointed city manager, as part of a cost-saving measure, switched the city’s water source to one that became contaminated with lead and harmful bacteria on April 25, 2014.
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